text:
On to Jerusalem
21 After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.5 When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6 After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day.8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabuscame down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'"
12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done."
15 After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:44 — 41.9MB)
Subscribe: RSS


text:
I'm starting a new experiment: the Bit Of Cheese blog. It's going to highlight one package in the Cheese Shop (aka. Python Package Index) per week. Well, it might be more frequent, it might be less. Depends on whether anything takes my fancy :)
The first module implements infix regular expressions. It's way more fun than that sounds.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Budget & Salary Reporting
The State School Aid Act, has been amended, which requires each school district and intermediate school district to post certain information on its website within 30 days after a board adopts it's annual operating budget or any subsequent revision to that budget. The Annual Budget & Transparency Reporting is an opportunity to communicate to our community how we will utilize the resources that are provided to us. The following information is required to be posted on our website, as outlined in MCL 388.1618 of the School Aid Act.
Fiscal Year Board Approved Budgets
Personnel Expenditures (Expressed in Pie Charts)
Current Operating Expenditures (Expressed in Pie Charts)
Current Bargaining Agreements
Employer Sponsored Health Care Plans
Audited Financial Statements
Procurement Policy
Expense Reimbursement Policy
Accounts Payable Check Register
Employee Compensation Information
District Paid Association Dues
District Paid Lobbying Costs
Approved Deficit Elimination Plan
District Credit Card Information


text:
Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have devised a method to convert a relatively inexpensive conventional microscope into a billion-pixel imaging system that significantly outperforms the best available standard microscope. Such a system could greatly improve the efficiency of digital pathology, in which specialists need to review large numbers of tissue samples. By making it possible to produce robust microscopes at low cost, the approach also has the potential to bring high-performance microscopy capabilities to medical clinics in developing countries.
"In my view, what we've come up with is very exciting because it changes the way we tackle high-performance microscopy," says Changhuei Yang, professor of electrical engineering, bioengineering and medical engineering at Caltech.
Yang is senior author on a paper that describes the new imaging strategy, which appears in the July 28 early online version of the journal Nature Photonics.
Until now, the physical limitations of microscope objectives—their optical lenses— have posed a challenge in terms of improving conventional microscopes. Microscope makers tackle these limitations by using ever more complicated stacks of lens elements in microscope objectives to mitigate optical aberrations. Even with these efforts, these physical limitations have forced researchers to decide between high resolution and a small field of view on the one hand, or low resolution and a large field of view on the other. That has meant that scientists have either been able to see a lot of detail very clearly but only in a small area, or they have gotten a coarser view of a much larger area.
"We found a way to actually have the best of both worlds," says Guoan Zheng, lead author on the new paper and the initiator of this new microscopy approach from Yang's lab. "We used a computational approach to bypass the limitations of the optics. The optical performance of the objective lens is rendered almost irrelevant, as we can improve the resolution and correct for aberrations computationally."
Indeed, using the new approach, the researchers were able to improve the resolution of a conventional 2X objective lens to the level of a 20X objective lens. Therefore, the new system combines the field-of-view advantage of a 2X lens with the resolution advantage of a 20X lens. The final images produced by the new system contain 100 times more information than those produced by conventional microscope platforms. And building upon a conventional microscope, the new system costs only about $200 to implement.
"One big advantage of this new approach is the hardware compatibility," Zheng says, "You only need to add an LED array to an existing microscope. No other hardware modification is needed. The rest of the job is done by the computer."
The new system acquires about 150 low-resolution images of a sample. Each image corresponds to one LED element in the LED array. Therefore, in the various images, light coming from known different directions illuminates the sample. A novel computational approach, termed Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM), is then used to stitch together these low-resolution images to form the high-resolution intensity and phase information of the sample—a much more complete picture of the entire light field of the sample.
Yang explains that when we look at light from an object, we are only able to sense variations in intensity. But light varies in terms of both its intensity and its phase, which is related to the angle at which light is traveling.
"What this project has developed is a means of taking low-resolution images and managing to tease out both the intensity and the phase of the light field of the target sample," Yang says. "Using that information, you can actually correct for optical aberration issues that otherwise confound your ability to resolve objects well."
The very large field of view that the new system can image could be particularly useful for digital pathology applications, where the typical process of using a microscope to scan the entirety of a sample can take tens of minutes. Using FPM, a microscope does not need to scan over the various parts of a sample—the whole thing can be imaged all at once. Furthermore, because the system acquires a complete set of data about the light field, it can computationally correct errors—such as out-of-focus images—so samples do not need to be rescanned.
"It will take the same data and allow you to perform refocusing computationally," Yang says.
The researchers say that the new method could have wide applications not only in digital pathology but also in everything from hematology to wafer inspection to forensic photography. Zheng says the strategy could also be extended to other imaging methodologies, such as X-ray imaging and electron microscopy.
The paper is titled "Wide-field, high-resolution Fourier ptychographic microscopy." Along with Yang and Zheng, Caltech graduate student Roarke Horstmeyer is also a coauthor. The work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.


text:
Biological Sciences Division
Research Highlights
August 2006
PNNL Scientists Improve Quality of Global Transcriptome Studies
Contact: Weiwen Zhang
Contact: Dave Culley
Contact: Fred Brockman
Transcriptome data are only as good as the quality of the input RNA. The completion of a draft genome sequence for the microorganism Methanosarcina barkeri has enabled use of high-throughput technologies such as microarrays and mass spectrometry of proteins to detect global changes that occur in response to experimental treatments. However, because M. barkeri has a complex cell wall, produces a thick outer layer of polysaccharide, and grows in large aggregates of cells rather than as individual cells, standard RNA extraction protocols give incomplete lysis of cells and result in low yields of poor-quality RNA. Under these conditions, transcriptome data could reflect how a minority of cells is responding, rather than how the entire population is responding.
Methanogenic organisms such as M. barkeri are of interest because they are involved in the anaerobic breakdown of organic matter under sulfate-limiting conditions and are essential for recycling carbon compounds and maintaining Earth's global carbon flux. These organisms are the major source of atmospheric methane, an important greenhouse gas that directly contributes to climate changes and global warming. Methanosarcina species have been isolated from such diverse methane-generating environments as mud samples taken from freshwater lakes and the rumen of cattle.
To quantitatively isolate RNA from the entire population of M. barkeri, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researchers tested modifications of standard RNA extraction methods to optimize efficiency and minimize the number of unlysed cells remaining after extraction. To further test the quality of the resulting RNAs, the researchers performed replicate microarray analyses. The results showed that three modifications were required to quantitatively isolate RNA and yield the most reproducible microarray results for M. barkeri: a liquid nitrogen-grinding pre-treatment, addition of a chaotropic chemical present in the reagent Trizol, and a 6-minute bead-beating treatment.
The results, which will appear in the Journal of Microbiological Methods, make it clear that the methods used to isolate RNA can have a significant impact on the variability, trend, and accuracy of microarray data. In addition, analysis of the microarray results obtained with RNA from the optimized protocol showed that, as expected, the genes involved in methane production (methanogenesis) were among the most highly expressed genes in M. barkeri.
The work was done under PNNL's Biomolecular Systems Initiative. The project team includes Weiwen Zhang, Dave Culley, and Fred Brockman, PNNL; and Bill Kovacik, University of Cincinnati.
Culley DE, WP Kovacik, FJ Brockman, and W Zhang. 2006. "Optimization of RNA isolation from the archaebacterium Methanosarcina barkeri and validation for oligonucleotide microarray analysis." Journal of Microbiological Methods (in press) doi:10.1016/j.mimet.2006.02.014.


text:
Role of institutes
In establishing the curricula the institutes are responsible for determining how the teaching load is distributed in the relevant academic year. In this context, the institute will take into account your current teaching load and subsidiary activities (both within and outside the study programme). It goes without saying that you should have enough time to supervise students, conduct research and develop new initiatives.


text:
Simply cutting back on smoking does not reduce mortality risk, according to a recent study published in the journal Tobacco Control (2006, vol. 15, no. 6).
Between 1974 and 1978, Norwegian researchers evaluated more than 51,000 men and women, ages 20 to 49. During the next 20 years, they screened the participants one or two more times, dividing them into six categories: never smokers, ex-smokers, quitters, moderate smokers (1 to 14 cigarettes per day), reducers (15 cigarettes per day or more initially, but then reduced by at least 50 percent upon final examination), and heavy smokers (15 cigarettes per day or more consistently).
Compared with the heavy smokers, reducers had no reduction in mortality risk. In fact, female reducers had higher death rates (from smoking-related cancer and other causes) than female heavy smokers. Ex-smokers (who quit before the study) and quitters (who quit during the study) both fared much better, with the lowest death rates, respectively, after never smokers.
The findings counter advice offered by some health educators, say the researchers. "Our study shows that heavy smokers who cut down their daily cigarette consumption by more than 50 percent did not reduce their risk of premature death," says study co-author Kjell Bjartveit, MD, PhD, MPH. "Often smokers have been advised, 'If you are unable to quit, cut down.' Such advice may give people false expectations. Our study proves that the only safe way out is to quit smoking entirely."


text:
Rainmeter displays customisable skins, like memory and battery power, RSS feeds and weather forecasts, right on your desktop. Many skins are even functional: they can record your notes and to-do lists, launch your favorite applications, and control your media player – all in a clean, unobtrusive interface that you can rearrange and customize to your liking. Rainmeter is at once an application and a toolkit. You are only limited by your imagination and creativity.
Rainmeter is open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU GPL v2 license.


text:
The nontracts below may be read online for personal viewing and reference. They are copyrighted and belong to FFRF. All rights reserved. This material may not be reprinted or distributed without the express written permission of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. FFRF makes these nontracts available in brochure form by the dozen or in bulk to make distribution cost-effective and easy at ffrf.org/shop.
Organized religion always has been and remains the greatest enemy of women's rights. In the Christian-dominated Western world, two bible verses in particular sum up the position of women:
"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."--Genesis 3:16
By this third chapter of Genesis, woman lost her rights, her standing--even her identity, and motherhood became a God-inflicted curse degrading her status in the world.
In the New Testament, the bible decrees:
"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."--1 Tim. 2:11-14
One bible verse alone, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18) is responsible for the death of tens of thousands, if not millions, of women. Do women and those who care about them need further evidence of the great harm of Christianity, predicated as it has been on these and similar teachings about women?
Church writer Tertullian said "each of you women is an Eve . . . You are the gate of Hell, you are the temptress of the forbidden tree; you are the first deserter of the divine law."
Martin Luther decreed: "If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing, she is there to do it."
Such teachings prompted 19th-century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton to write: "The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of woman's emancipation."
The various Christian churches fought tooth and nail against the advancement of women, opposing everything from women's right to speak in public, to the use of anesthesia in childbirth (since the bible says women must suffer in childbirth) and woman's suffrage. Today the most organized and formidable opponent of women's social, economic and sexual rights remains organized religion. Religionists defeated the Equal Rights Amendment. Religious fanatics and bullies are currently engaged in an outright war of terrorism and harassment against women who have abortions and the medical staff which serves them. Those seeking to challenge inequities and advance the status of women today are fighting a massive coalition of fundamentalist Protestant and Catholic churches and religious groups mobilized to fight women's rights, gay rights, and secular government.
Why do women remain second-class citizens? Why is there a religion-fostered war against women's rights? Because the bible is a handbook for the subjugation of women. The bible establishes woman's inferior status, her "uncleanliness," her transgressions, and God-ordained master/servant relationship to man. Biblical women are possessions: fathers own them, sell them into bondage, even sacrifice them. The bible sanctions rape during wartime and in other contexts. Wives are subject to Mosaic-law sanctioned "bedchecks" as brides, and male jealousy fits and no-notice divorce as wives. The most typical biblical labels of women are "harlot" and "whore." They are described as having evil, even satanic powers of allurement. Contempt for women's bodies and reproductive capacity is a bedrock of the bible. The few role models offered are stereotyped, conventional and inadequate, with bible heroines admired for obedience and battle spirit. Jesus scorns his own mother, refusing to bless her, and issues dire warnings about the fate of pregnant and nursing women.
There are more than 200 bible verses that specifically belittle and demean women. Here are just a few:
(See Woe To The Women: The Bible Tells Me So for a more comprehensive list)
2:22 Woman created from Adam's rib
3:16 Woman cursed: maternity a sin, marriage a bondage
19:1-8 Rape virgins instead of male angels
20:17 Insulting Tenth Commandment, considering a wife to be property
21:7-11 Unfair rules for female servants, may be sex slaves
22:18 "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"
38:8 Women may not enter tabernacle they must support
12:1-14 Women who have sons are unclean 7 days
12:4-7 Women who have daughters are unclean 14 days
15:19-23 Menstrual periods are unclean
19:20-22 If master has sex with engaged woman, she shall be scourged
1:2 Poll of people only includes men
5:13-31 Barbaric adulteress test
31:16-35 "Virgins" listed as war booty
21:11-14 Rape manual
22:5 Abomination for women to wear men's garments, vice-versa
22:13-21 Barbaric virgin test
22:23-24 Woman raped in city, she & her rapist both stoned to death
22:28-29 Woman must marry her rapist
24:1 Men can divorce woman for "uncleanness," not vice-versa
25:11-12 If woman touches foe's penis, her hand shall be cut off
11:30-40 Jephthah's nameless daughter sacrificed
19:22-29 Concubine sacrificed to rapist crowd to save man
I Kings
11:1-4 King Solomon had 700 wives & 300 concubines
14:1-4 "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one . . ."
7:9-27 Evil women seduce men, send them to hell
11:22 One of numerous Proverbial putdowns
3:16-17 God scourges, rapes haughty women
16:45 One of numerous obscene denunciations
24:19 "[woe] to them that are with child"
2:22 Mary is unclean after birth of Jesus
I Corinthians
11:3-15 Man is head of woman; only man in God's image
14:34-35 Women keep in silence, learn only from husbands
5:22-33 "Wives, submit . . ."
3:18 More "wives submit"
I Timothy
2:9 Women adorn selves in shamefacedness
2:11-14 Women learn in silence in all subjection; Eve was sinful, Adam blameless
Why should women--and the men who honor women--respect and support religions which preach women's submission, which make women's subjugation a cornerstone of their theology?
When attempts are made to base laws on the bible, women must beware. The constitutional principle of separation between church and state is the only sure barrier standing between women and the bible.
For more information about the treatment of women in the bible, read the books Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So by Annie Laurie Gaylor and The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible by Ruth Hurmence Green.
Join the Freedom From Religion Foundation to help educate about the root cause of women's oppression, and to enforce the absolute separation of church and state.


text:
As the US confronts a new crisis, the opportunists are once again playing the system and exploiting it for their own ends.
Much of the growth of government in the US and elsewhere occurs as a direct or indirect result of national emergencies such as wars and economic depressions.
Laws are enacted, bureaux are created and budgets are enlarged. In many cases these changes turn out to be permanent. The result is that crises act as a ratchet, shifting the trend line of governments size and scope up to a higher level.
It comes as no surprise that governments spend more money and regulate more actively during crises - wars and economic bail-outs are expensive and complicated. But a more active government also attracts opportunists, who perceive that a national emergency can serve as a useful pretext for achieving their own objectives.
The US and other countries seem no more aware of this today than they were in the past. And yet history has provided many examples to illustrate how damaging it is.
Take the Great Depression. At that time, the organized farm lobbies, having sought subsidies for decades, took advantage of the crisis to pass a sweeping rescue package, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, whose title declared it to be "an act to relieve the existing national economic emergency".
Almost 70 years later, the farmers are still sucking money from the rest of society and agricultural policy has been enlarged to satisfy a variety of other interest groups, including conservationists, nutritionists and friends of the third world.
Then, during the second world war, when government accounted for nearly half the USs gross domestic product, virtually every interest group tried to tap into the vastly enlarged government budget. Even bureaux seemingly remote from the war effort, such as the Department of the Interior, claimed to be performing "essential war work" and to be entitled to bigger budgets and more personnel.
Smaller crises have sent the opportunists into feeding frenzies, too. The ever-opportunistic International Monetary Fund is a classic case. Established as part of the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement, the IMF was primarily responsible for extending short-term, subsidized credits to countries experiencing balance-of-payments problems under the postwar pegged-exchange-rate system. In 1971, however, Richard Nixon, then US president, closed the gold window, signaling the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement and, presumably, the demise of the IMFs original purpose. But since then the IMF has used every so-called crisis to expand its scope and scale.
The oil crises of the 1970s allowed the institution to reinvent itself. Those shocks required more IMF lending to facilitate, yes, balance-of-payments adjustments. And more lending there was: from 1970 to 1975, IMF lending more than doubled in real terms; from 1975 to 1982, it increased by 58 per cent in real terms.
With the election of Ronald Reagan as US president in 1980, it seemed the IMFs crisis-driven opportunism might be reined in. Yet with the onset of the Mexican debt crisis, more IMF lending was "required" to prevent debt crises and bank failures. That rationale was used by none other than President Ronald Reagan, who personally lobbied 400 out of 435 congressmen to obtain approval for a US quota increase for the IMF. IMF lending ratcheted up again, increasing 27 per cent in real terms during Mr. Reagans first term in office.
Not surprisingly, the events of September 11 did not catch the IMF flat-footed. On September 18, Paul ONeill, the US Treasury secretary, had breakfast with Horst Kohler, the IMFs managing director, to discuss the financial needs of coalition partners. Also on their agenda was the IMFs denial of funds to countries that failed to toe Washingtons line.
Within the US government, the latest emergency has given cover to a multitude of parochial opportunists, whose proposals range from bailing out the airlines to nationalizing vaccine production. The resulting "stimulus package" amounts to about Dollars 100bn (Pounds 70bn).
The ratchet continues to operate on ideology, too. A recent poll conducted by The Washington Post indicates that 53 per cent of Americans think the government "is run for the benefit of all the people", up from 35 per cent last year. Only 37 per cent agreed that "the government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves", the lowest percentage since 1966, when 33 per cent embraced that view.
It may be too much to expect a speedy end to the law of the ratchet but it is time to acknowledge what is going on. That, at least, may make it easier to reverse the trend during times of stability.
Wake Up to the Law of the Ratchet
Also published in Financial Times
Robert Higgs is Retired Senior Fellow in Political Economy, Founding Editor and former Editor at Large of The Independent Review.
Steve H. Hanke is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of Applied Economics and Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at Johns Hopkins University.
Before posting, please read our Comment Policy.


text:
Just before we begin this article, I should point out some definitions just in case you're not fully on board with them:
OTT = "over the top" — that is, services that run on your data connection and have nothing whatsoever to do with the mobile operator.
RCS = "Rich Communication Services" — services that your operator typically deploys, manages (and charges you for).
So, with those out the way, let's hear from Stefan Zehle, the Telecoms Analyst at Coleago Consulting. He has written the following thoughts on how operators are fighting back with RCS against the deluge of OTT possibilities. Do consider the recent news from today's FT regarding research that reckons operators have lost almost $14 billion in revenues as a result of OTT competition.
Have operators missed the boat with their own RCS services? Let's hear from Stefan:
– – – – –
WhatsApp and other Over the Top (OTT) communication services are not only impacting on SMS but also on voice usage. The mobile operator community is fighting back with its Rich Communication Services (RCS) initiative. "For consumers, it will deliver an experience beyond voice and SMS by providing them with instant messaging or chat, live video sharing and file transfer across any device, on any network, with anyone in their mobile address book. RCS-e taps into how your consumers are already sharing their life moments with each other." (source: RCS-e website). This sounds familiar because this is what Skype, FaceTime, and WhatsApp are delivering today.
The key difference between RCS and OTT communication services is that with the former services are provided by the mobile operators each country and with the latter they are provided by a single cloud based service provider. RCS fits into the traditional telecoms world in which mobile operators interconnect traffic. This is why it takes time to implement it across networks to become an equally universal service as voice and SMS today. Service universality is of course what made global telecoms so successful. But times change.
The cloud based approach is not only faster to market but a key advantage is precisely that the service is not linked to the access network or a particular device. For example, a Skype video call can be made between a Smartphone user connected via HSPA and another using a laptop connected via ADSL. Such cross network / cross device "rich calls" are also possible with RCS Release 2, but compared to Skype it is non-existent.
While the RCE community is busy talking about roadmaps and inter-operability, millions have signed up to Skype and WhatsApp or use iPhone's FaceTime. Mobile operator's "rich services" such as MMS and mobile video telephony have been around since the advent of 3G but failed to take off. And as regards universality, those who attempted international mobile video calls can attest to the low chances of success. Nevertheless, mobile operators hold the relationship with the client, notably a billing relationship and RCE service may yet turn out to be adopted alongside OTT services.
Of course mobile operators could simply ride the OTT train and let people do what they want and charge them for the service they use, namely access and transporting bits. RCS is designed to prevent mobile operators being relegated to a mere bit pipe. However, transporting bits is where most of the investment goes. Billions are being spent of building HSPA and LTE networks and acquiring spectrum, yet data transport is often priced at a low level or an add-on to a voice centric mobile phone tariff plan. And even worse: As we see in the Q4 2011 earnings releases from Verizon, AT&T and Sprint with profits and cash flow being hammered by iPhone subsidies. By subsidising Smartphones, mobile operators in effect subsidise OTT service providers.
Perhaps the answer is to change the mobile operator business model. Mobile operators have in effect opened their network to competition at service level to OTT service interlopers. In an open market, if pricing does not relate to cost, interlopers will attack where pricing is well above costs. International call pricing is a good example.
OTT service providers such as Skype and WhatsApp are global in scale. Therefore, as regards the cost of providing services (excluding access), OTT service providers have a huge cost advantage compared to mobile operators. The other issue is time to market. New services are easily and rapidly implemented in a cloud. The operator / interconnect model cannot match this agility. This matters because we do not even know what services might be around the corner.
There is of course one huge issue. Telecoms operators are tightly regulated from a telecoms regulatory and competition perspective. One key regulatory objective is to promote competitive markets and consumer choice. Interconnect regulation, with its requirement to interconnect on non-discriminatory basis, is a cornerstone of this. However, these rules do not apply OTT providers. For example, other operators cannot "interconnect" with Skype in the sense that they cannot provide their own Skype like software client to their customers which would have the same functionality as Skype itself: See who is online, access to the only address book, video conferencing, screen sharing, etc.
Instead what we are seeing is regulatory asymmetry, in as much as the principle of net neutrality is high on the regulatory agenda and this means that mobile operators cannot block or charge more traffic to OTT service providers. However, the reverse is not true. While there has been some discussion around NGN interconnect and APIs, perhaps regulators are not yet worried about the implications for monopolistic behaviour of OTT service providers because other services such as Apple's FaceTime provide an alternative. However, the issue may well become the regulatory challenge of the future. And challenging it would be, because national regulatory agencies (NRAs) may find it difficult to regulate a cloud service like Skype or WhatsApp.
– – – –
Fascinating points, Stefan.
I know quite a few executives who were commenting that OTT vs RCS was a serious issue back in 2010, so if it was bad then, now wonder we're seeing profit warnings and pained looks from the operators.
My own view is that in most cases, it's far too late. The market has moved on. That decision has been made.
What do you think?


text:
Predators fall as Oilers snap six-game losing skid
EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Edmonton Oilers' got everyone involved in this slump-busting win.
Ryan Smyth, Justin Schultz, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had a goal and an assist, and Ben Scrivens made 34 saves as Edmonton ended a season-high six-game skid with a 5-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday night.
"It was a good team win, all four lines and all six defense were rolling pretty good," Schultz said. "We got contributions from everyone tonight. Whether they were on the score sheet or not, everyone played well. It was nice to get a win."
Taylor Hall chipped in two assists and Nail Yakupov scored for the Oilers (16-32-7), who captured their fifth win in 22 games.
"It was nice to get out to an early lead and I thought we carried momentum shift after shift in the first period," Smyth said. "We desperately needed a win, to build some confidence. Now we have confidence that we can win. We can come from behind if we need to, but it was nice to play with the lead."
Edmonton has had five losing streaks of at least five games this season.
David Legwand scored for the Predators (23-23-8), who have lost two in a row -- against a pair of Alberta teams, blowing a lead in a 5-4 shootout loss in Calgary on Friday.
"I'm quite disappointed," Nashville head coach Barry Trotz said. "We had a game in Calgary the other day and let a point slip away, and tonight we had it 1-1 late in the first and I thought we would be in good shape. We gave up a poor goal in terms of our structure, it was bad coverage by us. When they got the third goal it took a lot of steam out of our bench."
Predators forward Paul Gaustad said the last two losses have hurt for a team trying to claw its way into the playoff picture.
"It's obviously not the result we wanted," he said. "Every team in this league is a really good team, no matter what the standings always say. We need to find ways to get two points. We have to start making a move up."
Edmonton started the scoring three minutes into the game as Jesse Joensuu saw Schultz streaking in from the point and hooked a pass to the defender for a hard shot that beat Predators goalie Carter Hutton.
Nashville tied it with 4:30 to play in the opening period as Legwand elected to shoot on a two-on-one break and beat Scrivens in the top corner.
The Oilers went into the dressing room after the first on a positive note, scoring with 12 seconds left in the first period. Taylor Hall sent a great pass through the legs of defender Roman Josi to give Eberle an easy redirection into the net from the crease.
The Predators came in with a 1-16-2 record when trailing after the first period.
Nashville thought it had tied it just 48 seconds into the second period, but Taylor Beck was called for goalie interference for running Scrivens over as he chipped the puck in, and the goal was disallowed.
Edmonton went up by two goals midway through the second period as Smyth picked up the rebound in the crease of a long shot by Corey Potter and put it past Hutton. It was Smyth's 125th power-play goal as an Oiler, tying him for second on the team's all-time list with Wayne Gretzky and putting him one back of leader Glenn Anderson.
"For Ryan, that was a special thing to do," said Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins. "Hopefully he can keep moving up the charts. Anything that has Mr. Gretzky's name on it and you can match it, it's a great, great accomplishment."
Edmonton made it 4-1 with three minutes left in the second period as Sam Gagner hit Yakupov trailing on an odd-man rush and the No. 1 pick of the 2012 NHL draft sent home his 10th of the season.
The Predators outshot Edmonton 17-7 in the third and thought they had finally been rewarded on what looked to have been goal by Craig Smith. But, once again, Beck was called for goaltender interference because he was lying on top of Scrivens when the puck trickled across the line.
"I've never seen anything like that," Beck said. "On the first one I was just taking the puck hard to the net and my momentum kind of ran the goalie a little bit. I think the puck would have gone into the net regardless, but the ref called it no goal. On the second one I was getting hacked and whacked and ended up falling on the goalie and again it was disallowed. Those things happen, I guess. Hopefully next time it is called the other way."
The Oilers put the game away for good with 4:30 left after some quick passing on the power play led to Nugent-Hopkins' 15th goal.
NOTES: It was the second of three meetings between the two clubs this season. Edmonton won the first game 3-0 on Nov. 28 with Ilya Bryzgalov earning the shutout. ... It was the first meeting between the teams since a trade on Jan. 15 that sent goalie Devan Dubnyk from the Oilers to the Preds in return for forward Matt Hendricks. Dubnyk has not had a strong start in Nashville, allowing nine goals in his two starts, and was not selected to play against his former team. ... The Oilers were without captain Andrew Ference, who sustained a head injury in their previous game against Phoenix. Forward Ales Hemsky also remained out with an ankle injury. ... Predators goalie Pekka Rinne continues to be on injured reserve with a hip injury. ... Nashville forward Eric Nystrom was coming off a rare four-goal performance against the Calgary Flames on Friday.


text: Ruins of Pantheon Walkthrough: ------------ 1. Twice up - enter the temple - click the rock, then go down the ladder, click all things on the right, find rope. click all things on left, find brush, go left 2. click the tombstone and use brush on it - click small black hole in the middle of the screen, take a small stone, go right and up and back - in front of the temple 3. click the roof, throw small stone on the spot in the middle and the lever falls down - back down the ladder and go right 4. on the left side up; in the pitcher find ancient key, click all stones, enter the cave 5. click right - middle - left lever, find part of pipeline; back to the ledder and go down 6. use ancient key to open both right and left door, go left 7. click the bog rock, throw the small stone on the spot and a big head appears, notice the flash of light, take the spade 8. go twice right, take candle, notice the puzzle on the big rock on the right side, open the front door with the ancient key, now you can go back to the pitcher room - dont go there now 9.go right to lava room, put the candle in lava to make fire, now go back to pitcher room, use the candle on the small painting on wall - exactly on the fire, now you have a clue for the three ring puzzle 10. set the rings so you have ring, under it laid letter E, under it roof - voilá :-) notice the sculpture 11. go twice right to rocks and some grass, use spade on grass, get a carrot - click the right rock, get a crowbar, click the front rock, use brush on it, notice a sign of three small circles, go to the tombstone room 12. use crowbar on the right side box, get red ball (carnelian), go to the room under ladder 13. use the carnelian in the empty place on the right side of door, a laser shows you a new hole 14. back to the temple, use crowbar on wooden boards and find another puzzle and a part to the hole in under ladder room, solve puzzle, clue is the picture in temple and the water starts to flow down the bowl in the lava room, now go out to the first scene with cat 15. go right, give the carrot to the rabbit and put the rope on the tree, now you can climb down to the grass room, goto the under ladder room, you can see a rabbit digging 16. click the rabbit until it runs away, then use spade to the hole, see put, use a crowbar on it. put a piece from temple puzzle to the laser hole, appears a new hole with a treasure chest, throw twice a small stone on it and it falls down to the left volcano, then you can take it. use candle on the right volcano, find bronze key, use it on chest, find a card; go down 17. take a gear wheel, go ahead, repair the pipe on the left side, in the left side tub take a mirror, right side a stone bowl, notice six levers, clue is tombstone, enter the cabin and insert a card into a comp, now back to lava room 18. click twice right spot near the bowl, insert a gear wheel, click twice a left spot near the bowl, insert a lever, pull down the lever, go right and take the part 19. go twice up to the water room, use stone bowl for water, back to sculpture, give it the full bowl, watch what happens, then go to big head 20. put mirror into flesh of light and watch what happens, go to the comp, put the part in it, click the circle upon the comp 21. now you fight - click the small circle, you attack - then yoy are hit by the other ship, have problems with electricity 22. now you have to use the cat, click some times on cat and the damaged wires, now you can attack again, watch and wait!!!! after credits disappear wait until there it is quiet, then take the cat body and go out, enter the small door put the cat on the table on right side with the wire and wait.


text:
- Home
- Living in Marshall
- Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Program
- About Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems
About Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems
Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems or MS4s
Stormwater runoff is commonly transported through Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s), from which it is often discharged untreated into local waterways. These storm sewer systems are:
- Owned by a state, city, town or other public entity that discharges to waters of the U.S.
- Designed or used to collect or convey stormwater (including storm drains, pipes and ditches)
- Not a combined sewer (which carries stormwater and sewage)
- Not part of a Publicly Owned Treatment Works (sewage treatment plant)
To prevent harmful pollutants from being washed or dumped into an MS4, operators must obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and develop a stormwater management program.
What is Included in an MS4 Program
Listed below are the six minimum control measures that operators of regulated small MS4s must incorporate into stormwater management programs. These measures are expected to result in significant reductions of pollutants discharged into receiving waterbodies.
- Public Education and Outreach: An informed and knowledgeable community is crucial to the success of a stormwater management program, since it helps to ensure greater support and program compliance as the public becomes aware of individual actions they can take to protect or improve the quality of area waters.
- Public Participation/Involvement: An active and involved community allows for broader public support, a broader base of expertise and a connection to other local environmental programs.
- Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination: Illicit discharges are untreated discharges that could contribute high levels of pollutants, including heavy metals, toxic compounds, oil and grease, solvents, nutrients, viruses and bacteria to receiving waterbodies. Operators of a regulated small MS4 are required to develop, implement and enforce an illicit discharge detection and elimination program.
- Construction Site Runoff Control: Stormwater runoff from construction activities can have a significant impact on water quality. As stormwater flows over a construction site, it can pick up pollutants like sediment, debris, and chemicals and transport these to a nearby storm sewer system or directly to a river, lake or stream.
- Post-Construction Runoff Control: Increased impervious surfaces, like parking lots, driveways, and rooftops, interrupt the natural cycle of gradual percolation of water through vegetation and soil. Instead, water is collected from surfaces such as asphalt and concrete and routed to drainage systems where large volumes of runoff quickly flow to the nearest receiving water. The effects of this process can include stream bank scouring and downstream flooding, which often lead to a loss of aquatic life and damage to property. Ordinances and other regulations are required to determine the appropriate best management practices and to ensure adequate long-term operation and maintenance of storm water controls.
- Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping: This measure involves recognizing the benefits of pollution prevention practices and includes the development and implementation of an operation and maintenance program. Reducing pollutant runoff from municipal operations into the storm sewer system can include employee training on how to incorporate pollution prevention/good housekeeping techniques into municipal operations. These controls could also include programs that promote recycling (to reduce litter), minimize pesticide use and ensure the proper disposal of animal waste.


text:
I have taken the design off my wallpaper and I am now offering Paperless Wallpaper. Peel and stick them up. They are removable and reusable and most of all they are fun to hang. Close your eyes and put them up on your walls and make sure you blast your favorite song when you do! Create your own magic.
XO, Kerri
Quick Ship
1 single
10.1" x 5.9"


text:
Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Stickers are available at the Transfer Station (211 Powisset Street) or online. Detailed instructions and appropriate application forms are available here.
Show All Answers
There is no residential trash pick-up provided by the Town of Dover, but there are private haulers that service Dover.
The Dover Transfer Station accepts household trash, food scraps and many recyclables. It is open to all Dover residents with a Transfer Station sticker (no charge) on their car. Stickers are available at the Transfer Station or online.
The Dover Transfer Station is open to all Dover residents with a car sticker. It is located on Powisset Street and is open Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from 8 am to 3:45 pm
Food waste is one of the heaviest components of your weekly trash. Since the town pays for incineration by weight, you can help to reduce the town's disposal costs by removing this item from your trash. In addition, overuse of kitchen disposals can adversely affect the functioning of your septic system.
Food waste should be separated from trash and disposed of in the large barrels located next to the compost area at the Transfer Station. This includes bones, shells, corn cobs, tea bags, coffee grounds, and all meats, eggs and fish. All food must be bagged. Residents may use any type of bag - plastic, paper or compostable. The town recommends the use of compostable bags.
Items that are NOT acceptable are recyclables, cooking oil, yard waste, boxes, cups and cartons.
Kitchen countertop containers and 10-gallon garage pails for transport are available for purchase at the Transfer Station. Compostable bags are available at local grocery and hardware stores, Amazon and Target.
The food waste is transported to an anaerobic digester to be converted to biogas. The town's goal is to turn this waste into a renewable energy source.
The program is available to all residents with a current Transfer Station sticker which is offered for free and can be obtained at the Transfer Station or Town Garage.
The Deposit Shed at the Transfer Station is used to collect deposit cans, and plastic and glass bottles. Prior to the COVID situation, the Recycling Committee assigned a local non-profit organization (garden club, school organization, girl scouts) to man the trailer each month and keep the monthly earnings received by bringing the deposit bottles and cans to a Deposit Center in Medfield. Due to the closing of this redemption centers, the Deposit Shed will now be maintained by the Transfer Station staff and the deposit containers will be delivered to a redemption center by the Dover Highway Department.
Mattresses and box springs are accepted throughout the year effective November 2020. A dedicated collection container has been installed next to the furniture shed for residents to dispose of these. Residents are asked to remove them from their vehicle and deposit them into the container, as far back as possible. Items should not be wet, moldy or bug-ridden.
If transportation to the transfer station is not convenient, residents can deliver mattresses, box springs, and metal bed frames to Conigliaro Industries at 701 Waverly Street, Framingham (508-872-9668). There is a $20 per unit charge and they accept deliveries Monday-Friday 7 am - 4:30 pm Monday- Friday. Contact them to verify current hours and cost.
Residents can also contact non-profits, such as NewLIfe Furniture Bank in Walpole (www.newlifefb.org), that accept metal frames used mattresses and box springs in good condition and will pick-up at home.


text:
Show All Answers
The non refundable convenience fee when using credit cards is a percentage-based or flat rate fee that varies depending on the card type and the bill you are paying. The convenience fee is automatically calculated based upon the type of credit card used and the dollar amount of the bill being paid and is shown on the payment page before you submit your payment for processing.
There are fees imposed by Invoice Cloud for returned payments, and your bank may charge you a fee based on the bank's fee schedule.


text:
Murder Your Darlings
It's the nature of writers to fall in love with words, particularly their own. Clever turns of phrase excite us; we beam like proud parents when our protagonists take on lives of their own; a shapely plot twist can turn our heads. There is nothing wrong with indulging in the occasional fling-as long as it stops in draft. When time comes to make that final revision, however, you must harden your heart, sharpen the ax and murder your darlings.


text:
Rental house of horrorsUnwary landlords can find themselves caught up in a host of financial implications and be burned when they discover the cost of owning a rental property29-12-2008 more >> Thomas Chin reports on legislation of interest in 2009When Parliament resumes in February 2009 there will be two major pieces of legislation and other business of interest to property investors.24-12-2008 more >> President's December reportFindings of the Survey for Ministry of Justice Review Team. Check the property market while in relaxed holiday mode. New style membership cards being designed. Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.23-12-2008 more >> Bernard Hickey: Property pain only just begunIt is tempting to think the worst is over for the housing market.22-12-2008 more >> Simple steps to increase your home's valueDuring the property market's heated phase,home owners saw the value of their houses soar without having to do so much as lift a paintbrush - but the sands have now shifted21-12-2008 more >> Kiwis looking at property againA second survey this week confirms the view that people are interested in buying property again and expect house prices to fall further.19-12-2008 more >> Mortgage borrowing strategyThe ANZ economists in the December Property Focus recommend fixing for six months to a year.19-12-2008 more >> Officials paint gloomy pictureGovernment officials have produced a gloomy outlook for the property market for incoming Minister of Housing Phil Heatley.17-12-2008 more >> Tauranga: Bargains in the bayTauranga's property market has been turned on its head by the current climate. Although some parts of the Bay of Plenty city and surrounding areas have finally reached the bottom, others are yet to hit. Adrienne Jervis talks to locals with their finger on the pulse to gauge the market from an investor's point of view.16-12-2008 more >> NZ Housing most affordable since 2005 - reportEconomic times may be tough but the good news is that housing in New Zealand is becoming more affordable.15-12-2008 more >> Fears of 35,000 jobs to go in NZ constructionAs new figures continue to emphasise the fall off in house building, there are fears 35,000 jobs could be lost in the construction sector.09-12-2008 more >> Default on rental debt leaving landlords out of pocketSome landlords are being left out of pocket due to an increase in the number of applications for no-asset procedures (NAPs) through the Insolvency and Trustee Service.09-12-2008 more >> House prices fall but signs point to 'slight' recoveryNational property values have dipped again this -month - but the slide may be bottoming out, according to figures from Quotable Value.08-12-2008 more >> Interest rates slashed to 5pc, banks cut floating ratesThe Official Cash Rate axe has swung again, with the Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard cutting official interest rates by 150 basis points - a 1.5 percentage point cut leaving the rate at 5 per cent.04-12-2008 more >> Landlord insurance bill withdrawnA private member's bill which would have required landlords to insure their tenants has been taken off Parliament's agenda.04-12-2008 more >> December '08 Issue01-12-2008 more >> President's November ReportNew Minister of Building and Construction. Effects of the global economic crisis. Meeting of DBH National Customer Service Council. Survey for Ministry of Justice Review Team. 2008/2009 NZPIF Executive.01-12-2008 more >> POLITICAL & REGULATORY REPORT for NOVEMBER 2008POST-ELECTION – NATIONAL-LED GOVERNMENT A National Party led coalition with the ACT Party, the United Future Party and Maori Party is the new governing arrangement for the next three years.01-12-2008 more >>
Need help or


text:
AG alleges association skirted disclosure rules in $7.2 million contribution to No on Initiative 522 campaign
SEATTLE– Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed suit in Thurston County Superior Court alleging that the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) violated the state's campaign disclosure laws. Ferguson alleges the GMA illegally collected and spent more than $7 million while shielding the identity of its contributors. The funds were spent to express opposition to Initiative 522, a measure requiring labeling of genetically engineered foods, seeds and seed products in Washington.
"When Washington state voters overwhelming approved Initiative 276 in 1972, they voiced their desire for transparency and openness in elections," Ferguson said. "Truly fair elections demand all sides follow the rules by disclosing who their donors are and how much they are spending to advocate their views."
The Grocery Manufacturers Association is a trade association, based in Washington DC, representing more than 300 food, beverage and consumer product companies. It is the biggest donor to the No on I-522 campaign.
The Attorney General's Office alleges the GMA established the "Defense of Brands Strategic Account" within its organization and asked members to pay assessments that would be used to oppose I-522. GMA then funded opposition efforts while shielding contributors' names from public disclosure.
Ferguson alleges the GMA should have formed a separate political committee, registered with the state's Public Disclosure Commission (PDC), and filed reports indicating who contributed, how much they contributed and how the money was spent to oppose I-522.
The AGO filed suit in Thurston County Superior Court to compel the GMA to register with the PDC and file disclosure statements.
The AGO is preparing to seek a temporary restraining order asking the court to order the GMA to immediately comply with state disclosure laws.
The AGO is also requesting civil penalties and costs of investigation and trial, including reasonable attorney's fees, injunctive relief and any other relief the court deems appropriate.
The suit stemmed from a citizen action letter received by the Attorney General's Office in late August. Upon receipt of the letter, the office immediately referred the case to the PDC for investigation. Working closely with the PDC, the Attorney General's Office reviewed information provided to the PDC during its investigation and determined there was sufficient evidence to file a court action.
The complaint can be found, here.
– 30 –
The Office of the Attorney General is the chief legal officer for the state of Washington with attorneys and staff in 27 divisions across the state providing legal services to roughly 200 state agencies, boards and commissions. Attorney General Bob Ferguson is working hard to protect consumers and seniors against fraud, keep our communities safe, protect our environment and stand up for our veterans. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.
Janelle Guthrie, Director of Communications, (360) 586-0725
Alison Dempsey-Hall, Deputy Communications Director, (206) 641-1335


text:
Microsoft plans to unveil the web-friendly features of its Office 2010 package today at its 2009 Worldwide Partner Conference, and TechCrunch has a hands-on walkthrough of each productivity app's features. Meanwhile, another Technical Preview build of Office 2010 has shown up in the wilds. If you've gotten a hands-on look at Office 2010 through developer channels or, er, other means, tell us what you're liking, or what's actually downgraded, in the comments. [via Gizmodo]
Update: Mary Jo Foley points out that today is likely the start of an invitation only technical preview of Office 2010 Professional, but a public beta is still due for later this year.


text:
Many kinds of birds are used in Christian symbolism.
Dove. The first to be so employed was the dove; it stood for the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, for when Jesus was baptized the Holy Ghost descended in bodily shape as a dove upon Him (Luke 3:22). It was also used as a symbol of peace, because a dove brought to Noah a bough of an olive-tree as a sign that the deluge of wrath was at an end. In early Christian art the Apostles and the faithful were generally represented as doves, the first because they were the instruments of the Holy Ghost, carrying peace to the world; the second because in their baptism they received the gift of reconciliation, entering with the dove (the Holy Ghost) into the Ark of God, the Church. Sometimes in symbolical writing it stands for rest: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will be at rest? (Psalm 54:7); often for simplicity, innocence, and love: Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves (Matthew 10:16); Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; One is my dove, my perfect one. (Cant., v, 2; vi, 8.)
Eagle. The eagle is a symbol of Christ and His Divine nature, of regeneration by baptism; it is also an emblem of St. John the Evangelist. As the eagle can gaze upon the shining orb of the sun with steadfast eyes, so can Christ gaze undazzled upon the refulgent glory of God the Father. Dante refers to the strong eye of the eagle (Parad., i, 47, 48): --
I saw Beatrice turn'd, and on the sun
Gazing, as never eagle fix'd his ken.
It was a popular delusion among the ancients that the eagle could renew its youth by plunging three times into a spring of pure water, a belief alluded to by David: Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's (Psalm 102:5), hence the primitive Christians, and later the medieval symbolizers, used the eagle as a sign of baptism, the well-spring of salvation, in whose water the neophyte was dipped three times, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in order to wash from his soul the old man of sin and put on the youth of a child of light. This bird was used as the emblem of St. John, because in his Gospel St. John dwells particularly upon the Divinity of the Redeemer and contemplates with the unflinching eye of an eagle the highest truths.
Pelican. The pelican is a symbol of the atonement and the Redeemer. It was supposed to wound itself in order to feed its young with its blood and to bring to life those who were dead the "pelicane who stricketh blood out of its owne bodye to do others good" (Lyly, Euphues). Allusion is made to this belief in "Hamlet" (act iv): --
To his good friend thus wide I'll ope my arms
And, like the kind, life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
Therefore it was deemed a fitting symbol of the Saviour, the nostro pelicano of Dante, Who shed His blood in order to give eternal life to the children of men. Skelton in his "Armorie of Birds" says: --
Then sayd the Pellycan:
When my Byrdts be slayne
With my bloude I them revyve.
Scripture doth record
The same dyd our Lord
And rose from deth to lyve.
Phoenix. The phoenix is a symbol of the Resurrection and of eternity. According to legend this mythical bird could never die; on attaining its five-hundredth year it committed itself to the flames of a funeral pyre, only to rise reborn from its own ashes. Dante used it as a symbol of the souls of the damned (Inf., xxiv, 197-208).
Other birds. The peacock in Byzantine and early Romanesque art was used to signify the Resurrection, because its flesh was thought to be incorruptible. (St. Augustine, City of God, xxi, c, iv.) It was also a symbol of pride. The raven is a symbol of the Jews of confession and penance. The cock is a symbol of vigilance, and also an emblem of St. Peter. The vulture has always typified greed. Many other birds were used during the Middle Ages for symbolic and ecclesiological purposes; while the preachers of these centuries developed the symbolism of each one of these emblems to a degree that now seems far-fetched and often obscure, nevertheless, they made it clear that religious instruction can be gained from birds and even from the common things of life.
LAUCHERT, Geschichte des Physiologus (Strasburg, 1889); CAHIER, Mélanges d'archéol. (Paris, 1847-56); NEAL AND WEBB, The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments (New York, 1896); DIDRON, Christian Iconography (London, 1851); EVANS, Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture (London, 1896); VIOLLET-LE-DUC, Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1853).
APA citation. (1907). Birds (In Symbolism). In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02576b.htm
MLA citation. "Birds (In Symbolism)." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02576b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.


text:
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Phil Hughes shook up the internet last week when he hinted that he's seriously considering transforming his surgically removed rib into a piece of jewelry.
Hughes underwent surgery last July to correct a condition called thoracic outlet syndrome. During the surgery, a small rib in the upper chest was removed to alleviate pain caused by the compression of nerves and blood vessels near his collarbone and shoulder.
While chatting with reporters in Florida early last week, Hughes discussed his recovery and the fact that he decided to keep the rib as a memento.
"I haven't decided what the next step is," he said. "I have a few ideas. Plating it with some sort of precious metal is one way to go. I'll figure out something to do with it before it corrodes."
Hughes' outrageous jewelry concept sparked a surge of coverage and commentary by high-profile media outlets, such as USA Today, MSN, ESPN, Fox Sports and Yahoo! Sports, among others.
The 10-year veteran, who started with the New York Yankees and has been pitching for the Twins since 2014, turned to Twitter to chime in about the flurry of attention.
He tweeted: "2 things I definitely didn't foresee myself making headlines for: Adele jokes and making a rib into bling."
The Adele reference related to the singer's "restart" of her live tribute to George Michael at the Grammy Awards. Hughes had tweeted, "I wish I could have gotten an Adele do-over on 168 pitches in my career."
It's not unusual for a patient to keep the rib after surgery, according to Dr. Robert W. Thompson of Washington University, who does more than 200 thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) surgeries each year.
Thompson told USA Today, "It gives them a souvenir and a memory. A lot of the patients that have had this have gone through an awful lot of disability and difficulty getting a diagnosis. Then it's treatment, recovery and rehabilitation. That little souvenir represents a long road that patients have gone through with this condition."
It's not clear right now if Hughes will actually have his rib dipped in gold and perhaps strung on a necklace, but we will be watching this story carefully as the baseball season unfolds.
Credits: Phil Hughes screen captures via YouTube.com; Medical diagram by BruceBlaus (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
The post Minnesota Twins Pitcher Phil Hughes Has 24-Karat Aspirations for His Surgically Removed Rib appeared first on Diamond Designs | Orange, CT Jewelry Store.


text:
Triple P – Positive Parenting Program ® is a parenting and family support system designed to prevent – as well as treat – behavioural and emotional problems in children and teenagers. It aims to prevent problems in the family, school and community before they arise. Furthermore, it aims to create family environments that encourage children to realise their potential.
Triple P draws on social learning, cognitive behavioural and developmental theory as well as research into risk factors associated with the development of social and behavioural problems in children. It aims to equip parents with the skills and confidence they need to be self-sufficient and to be able to manage family issues without ongoing support.
While Triple P is almost universally successful in improving behavioural problems, more than half of Triple P's 17 parenting strategies focus on developing positive relationships, attitudes and conduct.
Triple P is delivered worldwide to parents of children up to 12 years, with Teen Triple P for parents of 11 to 15 year olds. There are also specialist Triple P programs – for instance Better Finglas offers the Triple P Stepping Stones program, for parents of children with additional needs.


text:
The rate of homelessness in Australia rose eight per cent between 2006 and 2011, despite public funding of $1.1 billion as part of a Federal Government promise to halve homelessness by 2020.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released on Monday showed that there were 105,237 people who were homeless on August 9, 2011, or 0.49 per cent of the population, with 60 per cent of those people under the age of 35.
In 2006, there were 89,728 homeless people in Australia, or 0.45 per cent of the population.
Groups that provide support to the homeless said the figures highlight how the federal and state governments must urgently renew their commitment to the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH).
Funding for the agreement winds up in June. State ministers are due to meet with federal Housing Minister Brendan O'Connor on Friday to discuss the future of the agreement, which has provided support to 180 services nationally.
Michael Perusco, chief executive of the St Vincent de Paul Society in NSW, said the rise was due in part to the number of people living in crowded, insecure accommodation because they could not afford the private rental market.
"These figures show the true extent of the housing crisis and how hard it is for people to find safe and affordable accommodation," he said.
"They should not be used as an opportunity to criticise the federal government's goal to halve homelessness by 2020. What it does highlight is the urgency to continue reforms and investment."
Jenny Smith, chief executive of Victoria's Council to Homeless Persons, said she was disappointed to see the figure rise, but said people facing homelessness would have fared worse without the public funding investment.
"Given the GFC and the cost of housing, perhaps the efforts that have been made have kept that increase lower than it otherwise would have been," she said.
"Given the figures, we would hope our federal state and territory ministers will renew their commitment when they meet on Friday."
Mission Australia has expressed concern that homelessness is a growing problem in the south-east of NSW, exacerbated by years of drought and lack of housing.
Mission Australia's Community Connections program works mainly in the south-east of NSW and is funded under the NPAH. In its first year, it supported 468 people who were either homeless or at risk of homelessness.
One of those helped was 22-year-old Goulburn woman Amber Clarke, who had been sleeping rough in Sydney following the breakdown of her marriage.
The English-born woman had no family or friends to turn to when her former husband became violent to her and her pets.
"One day he threatened my puppy and kitten," she said. "That was the reason why I left. I thought, 'What kind of person would hurt an innocent puppy or kitten?' If he would do that, what would he do to me?
"Homelessness was a big issue for me. I didn't have anyone to turn to. My family kept telling me to come home (to the UK), but this was something I had got myself into, so I felt like I had to get myself out of it."
She found crisis accommodation with the help of Community Connections and now has a full-time job in Canberra.


text:
There's a new resource to learn more about Orange Shirt Day and the history of residential schools.
Earlier this month Joan Sorley and Phyllis Webstad could be found attending the Williams Lake Farmers Market late Tuesday afternoons promoting the Orange Shirt Society's first and latest book Orange Shirt Day which is designed as a textbook for middle school students.
"When COVID-19 hit that's really all we were doing was going over and over the material just to make sure we got it right and we got the history correct and everything was the way we wanted it," Webstad said.
"I'm proud of it."
Divided into eight chapters, the book discusses the vision that inspired Orange Shirt Day, the history and effects of residential schools and the process of reconciliation.
Observed each Sept. 30, Orange Shirt Day began seven years ago.
It all started through the vision of Esketemc First Nation's Chief Fred Robbins who longed for all people to remember and learn what happened at St. Joseph's Mission residential school near Williams Lake, which Webstad attended.
In 2013, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada travelled to Williams Lake to participate in commemoration project events inspired by Robbins, the book noted. It was during these series of events that Webstad courageously shared the story of her orange shirt that has now become a worldwide symbol of hope and reconciliation.
Webstad was just six years old when at her first day of residential school in 1973 her new shiny orange shirt, bought by her granny, was taken away.
"It was pee your pants terror," Webstad said she tells students who ask her how she felt on her first day at St. Joseph's Mission.
"If you can imagine being at the mall or the grocery store with your family and all of a sudden you don't know where they are and that instant terror of being by yourself and not knowing what to do —that's what it was like going to the residential school and realizing I wouldn't be able to go home."
Various months and days were looked at with School District 27 in which an annual day of events would be held for students to learn more about the dark history of Canada's residential schools and the devastating impacts they had on Indigenous people.
In the end September 30th was chosen.
"I overheard an elder say that September was crying month and I knew then that we had chosen the right time of year and the right day for Orange Shirt Day," Webstad, said noting September was the time of year when Indigenous children were taken from their communities, families and homes.
Read More: Forest products company to sponsor annual nation-wide Orange Shirt Day art contest
In order to achieve reconciliation every person must make the effort to listen to the painful truths of what took place in residential schools as well as the inter-generational impacts, the Orange Shirt Day book states.
"Life can be understood backwards but must be lived forward and I always remind myself of that," Webstad said, adding she will forever be on her journey of healing.
Most Orange Shirt Day events this year are being held virtually due to COVID-19. In Williams Lake, Webstad will be holding an online question and answer session on Orange Shirt Day starting at 11 am PST Wednesday, Sept 30.
Do you have a comment about this story? email:
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.


text:
The Vatican had vowed that it will never stop insisting that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.
Just days after three US states approved same-sex marriage by popular vote in the recent election, the Vatican has taken a stance against gay marriage with a "media blitz" that includes a front-page article in Saturday's Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
There was also a Vatican Radio editorial in which the pope's spokesman asked why gay marriage supporters don't also push for legal recognition of polygamous marriages as well.
Along with the US, Spain has also upheld its gay marriage law and France is pushing ahead with legislation that could see same-sex marriage legalized as early as next year.
Catholic teaching holds that homosexuals should be treated with dignity but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."
According to RTE, L'Osservatore Romano wrote that Catholics were valiantly fighting to uphold church teachings in the face of "politically correct ideologies invading every culture of the world."
Read more news on LGBT issues here
Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said that homosexuals can have their rights protected by means other than through legal marriage.
He added that children should be able to say they have a father and a mother.
"If not, then why not contemplate freely chosen polygamy, and naturally so as to not discriminate, polyandry?" he asked.
Polyandry is when a woman has two or more husbands.
"As a result, don't expect the church to stop insisting that society recognises a specific place for marriage between a man and woman," he said.
The Church has also clashed with the Obama administration over the contraception mandate which exempts houses of worship but applies to faith-affiliated employers.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has said the mandate is a violation of religious freedom.


text:
- From: Antoine Isaac <firstname.lastname@example.com>
- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:02:23 +0100
- To: email@example.com
W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group We are pleased to announce the publication of the SKOS Primer as a W3C First Public Working Draft: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-primer-20080221/ This is a substantial update to and replacement for the previous SKOS Core Guide W3C Working Draft dated 2 November 2005 [1]. It is a companion document to the SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference W3C Working Draft dated 25 January 2008 [2]. We ask at this stage feedback and reviews on this draft guide. All comments are welcome and may be sent to firstname.lastname@example.com; please include the text "SKOS comment in the subject line. Note especially that there are a number of open issues, which are indicated in the document. Please forward this announcement to any other groups which may be interested. Abstract: """ SKOS — Simple Knowledge Organization System — provides a model for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, folksonomies, and other types of controlled vocabulary. As an application of the Resource Description Framework (RDF) SKOS allows concepts to be documented, linked and merged with other data, while still being composed, integrated and published on the World Wide Web. This document is an implementors guide for those who would like to represent their concept scheme using SKOS. In basic SKOS, conceptual resources (concepts) can be identified using URIs, labelled with strings in one or more natural languages, documented with various types of notes, semantically related to each other in informal hierarchies and association networks, and aggregated into distinct concept schemes. In advanced SKOS, conceptual resources can be mapped to conceptual resources in other schemes and grouped into labelled or ordered collections. Concept labels can also be related to each other. Finally, the SKOS vocabulary itself can be extended to suit the needs of particular communities of practice. This document is a companion to the SKOS Reference, which gives the normative reference on SKOS. """ For more information on SKOS, the Semantic Web Deployment Working Group, or the W3C Semantic Web Activity, please see the following links: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/ http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ Kind regards, Antoine [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20051102/ [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-reference-20080125/
Received on Tuesday, 26 February 2008 22:02:29 UTC


text:
Jonathan Winters Dead -- Comic Legend Dies at 87
Jonathan Winters Dead at 87
Jonathan Winters, the comedic film and TV actor who was huge in the '70s and '80s on shows like "Mork and Mindy," has died at age 87 ... TMZ has learned.
Winters died last night of natural causes in Montecito, Calif, around 6:30 p.m., surrounded by friends and family.
Winters' career began when he won a talent contest, which led to radio gigs and appearances at comedy clubs. He was a staple on the late night TV circuit for decades -- he was one of Jack Paar's favorite guests and a Johnny Carson regular -- and recorded several classic comedy albums.
He often performed in character ... the best known of which was Maude Frickert, the seemingly sweet old lady with a quick and acid wit. He also starred in one of the best comedies ever -- "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."
Winters suffered 2 nervous breakdowns in the late '50s and early '60s and was voluntarily institutionalized. He was diagnosed with manic depression. He spoke openly about it and even joked about it in his comedy act.
Winters -- who was Native American -- won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which was presented to him at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 2000.
Winters appeared in nearly 50 films and TV shows ... and was a regular on the Saturday morning children's television program "Hot Dog" in the '70s.
He co-starred with Robin Williams as Mearth -- Mork and Mindy's son ... who was hatched from an egg and aged backwards. Think Benjamin Button ... but funny.


text:
Intel's bet on the tiny 4×4 PC is paying off – big time. Demand and sales for the itty-bitty PCs with big PC guts are going gangbusters, and with numerous improvements coming to the NUC line, it seems Intel is only getting started.
Many partners may think of NUC as those little square boxes that can mount to the back of a display or sit on a desk, but that's only the tip of the iceberg for these do-anything boards.† On display here at Intel's 2014 Solution Summit are a huge variety of products powered by NUCs. Little boxes, sure, like this K3 Ultratop solution from In-Win that allows system builders to cram a NUC, 3D camera, and storage into a bitty box that can be mounted anywhere.
The small size of the NUC board also allows partners and integrators to do some amazingly cool things, like stack 10 of them on top of each other to make a very powerful cluster with a small footprint. Others are building unique AIO-type solutions by cramming a NUC into the stand with ports and drives in the base.
Even Intel's tiny square boxes are getting some oft-requested features. According to Intel's Director of Product Marketing, John Deatherage, the company has been listening closely to user feedback since the very first NUCs shipped. Over the past 18 months, Intel has integrated a regular SATA port, integrated IR receiver, and more at the request of channel partners.
The common NUC chassis was designed solely to use mSATA SSD as the storage, but users have often cited interest in allowing for 2.5″ storage drives to be used in an effort to better customize solutions. Intel now has a NUC chassis that can accommodate 2.5″ drives. It's a little taller than current units, but the flexibility it provides is heaven sent. Recently I did a video showing how NUC can be used as a set-top media device, but if you wanted to add a lot of storage for DVR use it had to be external. With these new designs, you could use a large 2.5″ hard drive, or some combination of mSATA SSD storage plus HDD.
I wouldn't hold my breath for an i7 performance NUC (although the company still seems very interested in pursuing that angle). For now, Intel is going to drive NUC into the thin-client market with its new Thin Canyon board and new chassis design.
Thin Canyon is based on its Atom SoC instead of the Core Series of processors, which definitely means these NUCs aren't as high performance as the others. However, the NUC boards require no active cooling, sip power, and are incredibly cost effective. From digital signage to thin-client PCs, there are a wide variety of use cases here.
Another Thin Canyon differentiator is that these Atom boards ship with 4GB NAND on board, which means that (depending on the application) additional storage isn't required. A thin client connecting to a Citrix server, for example, doesn't need much.
MSRP for Thin Canyon with the chassis is an incredibly low $129, and since the only actual hardware requirement is RAM, these could be deployed for as low as $150. Integrator kits that include only the board can be picked up for less than $100.
Check out the attached gallery for a lot more photos of the Thin Canyon NUC board and chassis.


text:
Each year the Eroica Ensemble presents a series of concerts in the communities of West Tennessee featuring spirited, wholehearted performances of the masterworks of the classical music repertoire.
Please join us for our 2013-2014 season.
Upcoming performances:
Saturday, November 23, 2013, 7:30PM
First Congregational Church
1000 S. Cooper St.
Memphis, Tennessee
Sunday, November 24, 2013, 3:00PM
Temple Israel
1376 E Massey Rd.
Memphis, Tennessee
Mendelssohn: Overture to
Ruy blas
Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Saeka Matsuyama Archibald, violin
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9
Glinka: Overture to
Ruslan and Ludmilla
- Free admission to all concerts -
The public is cordially invited to attend.


text:
Hertel v. State of Ohio
Filing 16
OPINION AND ORDER granting 10 Motion to Dismiss; adopting Report and Recommendations re 14 Report and Recommendations.. Signed by Judge James L. Graham on 5/5/2017. (ds)(This document has been sent by regular mail to the party(ies) listed in the NEF that did not receive electronic notification.)
Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.


text:
While the thought of applying electricity directly to the brain in unsupervised conditions is, to some, a bit scary, Halo Neuroscience has gotten over a million smackers to allow you do just that. Halo, a company that will produce a wearable device to "boost brain function" has closed a $1.5 million round led by Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz and Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC.
First, understand that this isn't a One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest simulator. Writes Dan Chao, CEO:
What will the company do with the cash? They will primarily work on IP and safety issues with the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that the product doesn't make us all hallucinate that we're being hunted by the North American Sasquatch.
Founded by Stanford-educated neuroscience researcher Dan Chao and engineer Brett Wingeier along with Amol Sarva, a consumer mobile guru with oodles of hardware experience, the company is on solid intellectual footing.
"Halo makes a technology that stimulates brain function in sick people and healthy people. It makes the brain work better — a wide range of potential effects from accelerating learning to improving body movement control," said Sarva. "The company isn't saying exactly what they are working on first but the field is a big new area — not just sensing things in the brain or 'reading' it, but sending waves into the brain and 'writing' to it."
Sarva admits the whole thing seems far-fetched.
"Dan and Amol have been in neuroscience for years. Have heard about this fringe technology since as early as 2002. Nobody believed it was real! We didn't either. Until we tried it," he said.
While the team isn't claiming you'll gain Magneto-like abilities upon using the device, it looks to be an interesting startup doing something far more important than making it easier for you to open your front door remotely. Who knows: maybe the company will allow you to add psychokinesis to your list of skills.


text:
In my smp server, I've been creating a rail system to travel long distances between minecart stations. At each station I utilize track switches to set your destination, and a self start booster to get you on your way. Each station has one of these, https://minecraft.wiki/w/Minecart_booster#Switch-triggered_booster
I found that much of the time, the booster cart wouldn't reset above the door properly, so I added an uphill booster to boost the booster cart, which will get it into place most of the time. However, people still have problems with the booster cart not resetting properly, or even disappearing all together.
Is there a more reliable self-start booster I can utilize in my stations?


text:
Minnesota Supreme Court sides with HIV-positive man
The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected a prosecutor's effort to reinstate the conviction of an HIV-positive man accused of passing the virus to another man.
The high court affirmed a Court of Appeals decision that reversed the attempted assault conviction of Daniel James Rick of Minneapolis. Justices agreed the statute under which he was convicted was ambiguous.
Gay rights groups said the state's interpretation of the statute violated the rights of HIV-positive adults to engage in consensual sex even if they have told their partners about the disease.
But Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman argued the statute was not ambiguous and was meant to prohibit conduct by people who know they're infected but practice unprotected sex anyway.
The Supreme Court says it's up to the Legislature to clarify the statute.


text:
Almost lost amid an unfolding banking scandal in Afghanistan, a confrontation between President Hamid Karzai and the country's parliament is coming to a head, threatening to paralyze the government at a crucial juncture.
Two recent developments concerning Afghanistan – the hastening of the US military drawdown and a financial scandal that has embroiled the former head of the country's Central Bank – have helped obscure the seriousness of Karzai's power play. And the banking scandal continues to capture local and international media attention: in the most recent twist, Afghan authorities issued an arrest warrant for the former Central Bank chief, Abdul Qadeer Fitrat, who earlier resigned his post and fled to the United States. Officials want to question Fitrat about possible malfeasance in connection with the collapse of Kabul Bank, a privately held institution.
The brewing executive-legislative conflict has the potential to be even more destabilizing for Kabul than the banking scandal. Afghan officials will be expected in the coming 18 months to assume greater responsibility for maintaining the country's security. Yet the current trend suggests that the government is coming apart, rather than coming together.
At the heart of the dispute is a power struggle between parliament and Karzai's administration, in which the president's chief objective is to weaken the legislative branch. Five months after he swore this second post-Taliban legislature in, and nine months after elections, Karzai authorized his own investigation into electoral fraud during last year's polls, a process that led to the disqualification of a roughly a quarter of the deputies.
The decision of the Karzai-backed Special Election Tribunal, announced on June 23, is a direct challenge to the autonomous bodies that have constitutional mandates to oversee elections. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) both investigated and eliminated fraudulent votes after the polls last September. Karzai set up his own tribunal in December in a move that some critics see as unconstitutional.
"That nine months after the elections [and] eight months after the final results were announced by the IEC … MPs still can be changed by a body established by the president is a sign of the sad state of Afghan institutions," said Thomas Ruttig of the Afghan Analysts Network, an independent research organization.
In Afghanistan's party-less electoral system, the legislature – the first sat from 2005-2010 – has repeatedly acted to check Karzai, trying to prevent the president from amassing too much power in the executive branch.
While the political affiliations of the 62 of 249 deputies who have been tapped for disqualification do not form a significant pro- or anti-Karzai pattern, the implementation of the special tribunal's action could provide a boost to executive authority by making the legislature more pliant, critics fear.
When announcing the Special Tribunal's decision, judge Sidiqullah Haqiq said the body had been set up "in response to complaints" about the vote and had "functioned transparently." But FEFA (the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan), the country's only independent election watchdog, said the process was characterized by "disorganization and lack of transparency."
"After all the post-election chaos, no one will ever be able to say who really won or lost a seat in September. The legitimacy … of the 'new democratic' Afghanistan has been destroyed for good. It is a very bad example for the transition because the 2009-10 election cycle [which included controversial presidential polls in August 2009] was the first major political process handled by the Afghan government alone," Ruttig told EurasiaNet.org.
The IEC has challenged the right of any other institution to announce final results of the elections, saying in a statement that it regards "the interference of any other organization in this issue as an explicit violation of the constitution and the Electoral Law."
Waliullah Rahmani, director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies (KCSS), a think-tank, warned that the events pointed to a "constitutional crisis" that could evolve into "a political-security crisis." If the president does not recall the tribunal, Afghanistan could witness "institutional weaknesses jeopardizing the legitimacy [of the government], which is destructive for the political future of Afghanistan and the survival of democracy in this country," he told EurasiaNet.org.
MPs have grouped together in opposition to Karzai. On June 22, a group of over 100 legislators announced the formation of "The Coalition for Support of the Rule of Law," promising to prevent "powerful individuals from usurping the rights of others."
Parliament has appealed to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to intervene. But Karzai has warned the international community to stay away. His spokesman Waheed Omar told reporters during a June 27 news conference that no external interference would be allowed and that the president was working to resolve the issue.
Despite earlier support for Afghanistan' autonomous electoral institutions, it is unclear whether the international community can or has the political will to intervene. "Afghanistan's peaceful future lies in the building up of robust democratic institutions based on the rule of law and the clear respect for the separation of powers," the UN's Staffan de Mistura and Vygaudas Usackas, the European Union's special representative to Afghanistan, said in separate statements.
"We cannot impose democracy from outside. It is up to Afghans to nurture the seeds of democracy that have been planted," Usackas told EurasiaNet.org.
Whatever the outcome, the political maneuvering seems set to be highly contentious and debilitating. "The winner – again – is Karzai. But it is a Pyrrhic victory," said Ruttig. "The losers are those Afghans who need a functioning state. Reestablishing the balance between the executive and the legislative would require new elections. But how should this work under Afghanistan's current security conditions and the state its electoral institutions are in?"
Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian freelance journalist based in Kabul.
Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.


text:
Adam dissects the Swell G-TOD and finds craftsmanship is king.
These days, as the demand for unique and boutique overdrive pedals continues to flourish, there are lots of options for musicians looking to get a bit of grit. While designs can vary widely, tube overdrives have long been a point of interest for guitarists – the reasoning being that when tubes heat up, magic happens. This month we had a chance to test the magic inside the SWELL G-TOD – standing for, what else, Guitar-Tube OverDrive.
The G-TOD holds a 12AX7 inside its casing – a tube typically found in preamp circuits, and providing this pedal with that good old fashioned tube compression all guitarists love. The G-TOD keeps it completely analog, forgoing the transformers and clipping diodes you might find in other boutique designs. If you're a believer in the completely analog signal path, you'll definitely be excited about this design.
Plugging in a Classic Player Strat and kicking on the first drive, with the drive knob set at about 3, resulted in a wooly tone with some grit around the edges – perfect when you just need to add a little bit of heft to your sound. Moving the level knob further to the right yielded enough gain to get your tubes cooking, but the clarity and primary tone of our guitar stayed intact. Even at the deepest level settings, the G-TOD's first drive channel cleaned up nicely with the volume knob and never got too crazy. Kicking on the second drive channel gave us even more of that creamy attack – adjusting the level quickly moved us from ballsy overdrive into deep fuzz territory, but the gain always remained confidently within our grasp. Another tangible bonus of the G-TOD is its dead quiet operation, even when all of your levels are maxed out.
If there's a complaint that could be leveled against this pedal, it would be that the tone is too nice. There's a real transparency surrounding this pedal, and no matter how soft or hard we pushed it, the G-TOD never really took on a character of its own. Of course, that's not necessarily a negative – this pedal is perfect for players who have already found their rig's sweet spot and just need a bit of a boost without altering their tone. The G-TOD definitely brings a contemporary sound to the overdrive, and if you're already in love with your rig, you'll like this pedal.
SWELL has put together a solid pedal here – the casing is sturdy, built out of diecast aluminum, and feels like you could use it to deflect objects thrown by an angry crowd and still finish your set. Compared to other tube overdrives, the G-TOD resides in a fairly compact casing, the switches are obviously built for a lifetime of stomping, and the pots have an exceptionally smooth travel. Top-mounted jacks keep your pedalboard clean and tidy, while those tiny details (a ceramic tube socket, phenolic knobs) show off the craftsmanship that SWELL is known for. Add in true bypass switching, a record out jack with speaker simulation (which is respectable in its own right), an included power supply, and you've got a pedal that manages to merge boutique function with utilitarian form – the result being a dependable choice for the gigging musician.
Rating... | ||
Tone... | ||
Craftsmanship... | ||
Features... | ||
Value... | ||
Overall... |
SWELL Pedals
Our expert has stated his case, now we want to hear yours. Log on to premierguitar. com, click on "Forum" and share your comments and ratings.


text:
Warning: All photos in this post were taken with my little cell phone. There will be blurriness. And poor lighting.
There is the replacement of the drive belt in our dryer, so it will all be worth it! (Well, to me and mine, at least.)
Anyway – this was not really difficult at all. I did it solo, so you probably can, too. If you haven't already.
Shall we?


text:
You're going to need to slip on the LBD, light some candles, and turn down the lights for this one.
Oprah Winfrey, in partnership with Mara Brock Akil, the executive producer of new OWN series "'Love Is," has curated a special 90s playlist to set the mood for the June 19th premiere of the romantic show.
Inspired by the true love story of writer/directer/producer duo Salim & Mara Akil, "Love Is" takes viewers on a journey back to the 90s when music was smooth and pagers were a thing.
You can listen to the official playlist by clicking here and check out the cast discussing their favorite 90s tunes above.
WATCH: Oprah Winfrey Reveals Some Of Her Favorite 90's Slow Jams was originally published on hellobeautiful.com